FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT HYDEL - PAGE 4

NEW DELHI/ITANAGAR: At a time India is struggling to meet electricity demand, a plan to tap power from the rivers of Arunachal Pradesh could provide relief. Instead, a massive drive to boost hydel power generation in the state - amounting to 52% of the nationwide hydel addition planned and five times India's current capacity shortage - lies in limbo, a victim of corruption in governments, greed of political parties and excesses of companies. Between February 2006 and March 2009, the Congress government in Arunachal signed 130 MoUs for hydel projects, amounting to 38,600 mw, on eight rivers.

NEW DELHI/ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh, the epicentre of hydel power in India, has decided to reverse its contentious decision in 2009 to give 49% equity in its hydro-power corporation to the Naveen Jindal Group. The decision, taken last month, came after a backlash from government departments and other companies having hydel projects in the state against the joint venture, which was a departure from precedent as it effectively gave the Naveen Jindal Group a stake in every upcoming hydel project in Arunachal.

NEW DELHI: Over 14,000 MW of hydro power capacity is under execution in the country and would be commissioned in the next four years, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) . As many as 40 projects are under various stages of implementation in the country which will be commissioned by 2018, the CEA data showed. The projects are being developed by the central and state governments and also by the private sector. The central government is constructing projects with over 7,500 MW capacity which include five projects of NHPC and three of NTPC.

This refers to edit 'Shoddy, fuzzy thinking' (ET, Mar 24). We should delink hydel projects from the methodology applied to ultra mega power projects (UMPPS). In J&K , rapid melting of glaciers, erratic monsoons due to global warming, will reduce seasonal flows and reservoir capacity of high hydel dams, apart from heavy silting. India should adopt the recent technique of building hydel dams of 100-200 MWs on perennial rivers, serving adjacent villages/towns and supply excess power to deficient areas through the grid, to exploit our huge hydro-power potential.

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy today held a high-level review with senior officials, developers and entrepreneurs of thermal and mini hydel power projects on ways to address the present power crisis in the state. He heard problems faced by thermal and mini-hydel power project developers and assured them that efforts will be made to sort them out, an official release said. He directed officials to speed up the work of addressing problems related to thermal and mini-hydel power projects, while developers thanked him for his assurance to sort out their problems, it added.

NEW DELHI: The total cost of state-owned NHPC's Subansiri project in Assam is likely to be around Rs 12,000 crore, nearly double than envisaged initially, following delays on account of various hindrances. The country's largest hydro power producer, NHPC is executing the 2,000-MW Subansiri hydel plant in Assam. The original cost of the project was Rs 6,285 crore. "Local issues, contractual issues, geological surprises, delay in decision making and poor risk-taking assessment have impacted the progress on the Subansiri project, which is now likely to cost nearly Rs 12,000 crore," a senior company official told PTI. The project has been stalled since December 2011, after the local people raised issues related to its safety and downstream impact.

NTPC's decision to enter the hydel project with two large projects is part of its strategy to reduce dependence on the thermal power segment. It has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Arunachal Pradesh government to set up two hydel projects with a capacity of 4,500mw. Though hydel power projects have a different risk-return profile, compared to thermal projects, they are attractive enough for players such as NTPC to venture into. It is already implementing hydel projects of 2,200mw capacity.

ITANAGAR: BJP has alleged irregularities in the MoUs signed by the Arunachal Pradesh government with various hydro power developers and urged the Centre to review them. In a letter to Union Minister of State for Energy Piyush Goyal, state BJP Vice-president Sotai Kri urged him to review the MoUs signed by the state government to build dams and other hydro power projects across the state. Drawing attention of the minister to the "unsuccessful" mini-hydel projects, Kri in his letter claimed that due to embezzlement and irregularities 75 per cent of the mini hydel projects had failed to materialize.

KOLKATA: The country has been able to achieve only a small 13% of the taregeted generation capacity addition till July 2013 - the last data published by the Central Electricity Authority . Target for total capacity additional is pegged at 18,432 mw. This includes 1,198 of hydel capacity, 15,234.3 mw of thermal capacity and 2,000 mw of nuclear capacity. The country has been able to achieve 132 mw of hydel capacity till July 2013 and 1,380 mw of thermal capacity totaling 2,512 mw for the country.

NEW DELHI: State-owned power producer National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) says it will invest about Rs 1 lakh crore to set up India's largest hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh. The Siang Upper Project will have a generation capacity of 9,500 MW, enough to light up two cities like Delhi. "We are in talks with the Arunachal Pradesh government for setting up the project," NTPC's chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury said. "The state has raised a few issues, which we are trying to address.